If you haven’t sat through enough Olympic games on television, perhaps only the likes of Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps resonate in your sporting memory bank.
Despite Asia’s dominance in the games, the casual sports fan would have more difficulties remembering athletes or performances—with some missing out on historic achievements—compared to their western counterparts.
So whilst the Olympics 2024 is still on its early legs, let me introduce you to some of the East’s greatest Olympic moments throughout the years.
They deserve their flowers after all.
Hidilyn Diaz (Philippines, 2020)
There are only so many countries that could rival the Philippines when it comes to being sports-crazed. The people there live and breathe basketball; boxing is ingrained in their DNA, whilst volleyball and billiards are played in every nook and cranny.
Yet for all the successes of their athletes in these sports, it was in weightlifting that the Pearl of the Orient found their much-awaited Olympic success.
The then 30-year-old Diaz was able to lift 224 kilogrammes to best her opponents in the 55-kilogramme division. Her triumph came after finishing second in Rio back in 2016—the first silver finish for the country since Onyok Velasco’s controversial match in Atlanta in 1996.
But with Diaz missing out on Paris this year, the Philippines’ chances of sniffing another gold go down according to SBOTOP Olympics 2024 odds.
Mikio Oda (Japan, 1928)
There will always be those who will better the records or achievements of the olden days. But for someone to be the pioneer of an entire nation, jumpstarting a winning tradition in an era that differs so much from the world today is as noteworthy as it gets.
Long before China, Japan, and South Korea’s Asian Olympic domination, it was in Amsterdam in 1928 that started it all. Enter, Japan’s Mikio Oda.
Oda will forever be remembered as the first Asian to win a gold medal at the Summer Olympics when he cleared 15.21 metres in the triple jump event.
A few days after, compatriot Yoshiyuki Tsuruta followed suit in the 200-metre breaststroke event.
Oda was posthumously awarded the Male Asian Athlete of the Century in 2000.
Hoang Xuan Vinh (Vietnam, 2016)
Hoang was 41 when he won gold at the men’s 10-metre air pistol competition in Rio de Janeiro. The win made him Vietnam’s first-ever gold medallist, along with being Southeast Asia’s oldest winner in the Olympic games.
He also finished with a silver medal in the 50-metre pistol event, which took his record up a notch and made him the first Vietnamese to garner two Olympic medals.
Wu Minxia (China, 2016)
There is no Chinese Olympian more decorated than Wu Minxia. Wu—a holder of five Olympic gold medals—is a seven-time medallist at the games’ diving events (five times at the synchronised event and one time as an individual).
Wu’s crowning achievement was in Rio, where she asserted her dominance by winning her fourth straight gold medal at the three-metre synchronised springboard competition.
The win pushed her above another Chinese diving legend, Guo Jingjing—her partner in Athens and Beijing.
Joseph Schooling (Singapore, 2016)
Having the greatest Olympian of all time for an idol and then beating him years later at the biggest sporting event in the world; that is the stuff dreams are made out of.
He finished with a time of 50.39, whilst Phelps was tied with a couple other swimmers at 51.14. The victory also stamped Singapore in the Olympic history books, as it was the country’s first gold medal.
The upset was heard round the world, and Schooling was elevated to the stratosphere after his win.
Kinue Hitomi (Japan, 1928)
Aside from Mikio Oda’s historic run in Amsterdam in 1928, fellow Japanese athlete Kinue Hitomi also made her mark in the same Olympic event when she became the first Asian woman to win an Olympic medal.
Hitomi’s track and field exploits—where she joined four events—yielded her a silver medal at the 800-metre race.
A unified Korea (Sydney, 2000)
After the Olympics 2024 news came out that North Korea will be participating in Paris (after missing out in Tokyo), it is high time to look back on their brief unification with South Korea back in 2000.
The two warring countries marched together under one flag, marking an unprecedented moment in Olympic history.
Their act was met with a standing ovation and a rousing applause. And even if they would end up competing under different countries, it was a hopeful moment for everyone involved.
It truly goes to show that sports transcend boundaries.
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